ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The College of Saint Benedict tennis team picked up its second MIAC win of the year Friday afternoon when it defeated St. Olaf 6-3 in a hard-fought conference match at the CSB tennis courts in St. Joseph, Minn.
Four of the six singles matches went to tie breakers, and Saint Benedict (9-7, 2-2) won two of those close matches.
"(Friday) we did a great job learning from our previous matches," CSB head coach
Michael Engdahl said. "Our mental toughness was outstanding, and we should be really proud of the way we competed today. We have a quick turnaround with another conference match (Saturday), and I know the women will be ready for another fight."
The Oles (6-4, 1-3) won No. 1 doubles to start the afternoon in a close 8-6 match, but
Erin Kolbow and
Ellen Stensrud teamed up to win No. 2 doubles 8-3, and
Lauren Clark and
Gabbie Noack won 8-2 at No. 3 doubles.
Every singles match was extremely close, and Saint Benedict won four of the six matches to pull away for the win.
Laura Finn fell at No. 1 singles, but pushed it to a tiebreaker before falling 4-6, 6-4, 10-7.
Tessa Rahrick fought through a tough first set to win 7-5, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, but the Oles won another tiebreaker as
Erin Kolbow fell 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 at No. 3 singles.
Stensrud won 6-0, 7-5 at No. 4 singles, and both Clark and Noack won tiebreakers to help CSB wrap up the win. Clark won 7-6(7-2), 3-6, 10-9 at No. 5, and Noack fought through for a 6-1, 3-6, 10-7 win at No. 6.
CSB is back at home right away again at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1, when it hosts Macalester in search of its third conference win and 10
th overall win of the season.
